MACHINE HEAD Frontman ROBB FLYNN On Catharsis Riff Rut - "Everything I Was Writing Was Like A FIONA APPLE Piano Ballad..."

February 8, 2018, a month ago

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Ultimate Guitar's Steve Rosen recently spoke with Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn about the band's new album, Catharsis. An excerpt is available below.

On songwriting with guitarist Phil Demmel

Robb: "Phil Demmel will bring in riffs and we'll just has through it. 'Well try this. Try it like that. Ah, that's kinda weird but that's cool' and you go on that journey together. The first month we started writing? Oh my god, I was on fire. Every riff I wrote was like, 'Oh, my god, we're killing it.' Then two months into it, I was in riff rut and I couldn't get out of it for months. I couldn't write a good riff to save my life. Everything I was writing was like a Fiona Apple piano ballad. I was like, 'What the fuck?' Even Phil was like, 'What is going on with you?'

Phil brought in tons of killer riffs and tons of great ideas. Dave (McClain) our drummer plays guitar and he brings in riffs and we try stuff and Jared (MacEachern / bass) has ideas. We're all just trying stuff and we go on this journey together and we go through the peaks and the valleys and through the riff ruts and the, 'Oh, my god. This is amazing' thing."

More chart positions are in from around the globe. Machine Head's latest album Catharsis debuted #1 on the North American Hard Music Charts, #5 on the Rock Album Charts, and #17 in North America sales-equivalent Top Current Charts besting Bloodstone & Diamonds, Unto The Locust and The Blackening on the physical-sales-ranked chart, and marking their first US Top 20 charting in history. It charted at #65 on the consumption-based (streaming) Top 200 charts.

Catharsis also reached new highs on the Canadian Hardcharts debuting at #1, and #10 on the Top Current Canadian Charts which also bests their previous high chart position of #25 with Bloodstone & Diamonds.

Other notable International chart positions arrived as well with several Top 10 entires around the globe and general all-time-highest positions coming in from Spain, Switzerland, Scotland and Japan.

Frontman Robb Flynn adds, “The chart positions coming in from around the globe are nothing short of incredible. The Head Cases of the world really made a show of force this week. But I gotta give an extra-special shout-out to the Head Cases of America. They stood their ground through a veritable hurricane of negativity, belligerant-ass reviews, and straight up online extremist-hate mudding the waters. To ignore all that, and stand by YOUR band means more than you will ever know. You deserve to be applauded so fucking loudly our hands should hurt from clapping and our throats from cheering. We are unbelievably grateful to you. Feeling proud... and so should you be Head Cases!"